
M A Y, under normal circumstances, is
a glorious month
in NYC.
Trees are finally green. Blooms abound. People circulate freely and together as if en route to a tableau vivant of Seurat’s Grande Jatte. Do you remember that painting? It’s in Chicago, sheltering
in place now, in
a museum.
Around 100,000 people perished in London (1/4 of the city’s population) in the Great Plague of 1665. The Bill of Mortality shown here documents the week of May 19-26, 1665, and specifies all different causes of death. The Plague, alone, was responsible for 7,165 casualties out of
a total of 8,297.
— NYC, 5/2/2020
(*) month of may, as in Robert Schumann’s Im wunderschönen monat mai, from Dichterliebe, op. 48.
Fascinating and resonant now, all those plague deaths, but look at those other causes! 121 people died of Teeth. How do you die of Teeth? What is Rising of the Lights? Look, Abortive–5 deaths. Legal then, but deadly? How about those three who died of grief? And the one who fell from a belfry. Great reading in a morbid time.
Thanks, Pat!